I Saw Myself Dreaming About Pregnant Women Every Night, So…

By Esther Olaifa

Aside that almost everything about pregnant women is sensitive and delicate, hearing a married man confess to dreaming about pregnant women every night would sound way off.

o dreaming about pregnant women every night, to the point of letting this get in the way of his career decisions.

But, that is the crux of the story you are about to read, an account which leaves a lot of moral lessons for the larger society.

It is about a man who let such considerations change the course of his career line, but which today, has left a far-reaching impact.

For the man fondly called the Dr Creek, real names, Gbolahan Nureni Sodipo “dreaming about pregnant women every night” is more consequential than it suggests, questioning our values, especially in relating with the vulnerable in our midst.  ‘.. Dreaming About Pregnant Women Every Night..’ is a story which The Eagle prefers to tell from the lips of the newsmaker:

“During my service year in the East, I used to go to Obolafor, Enugu Esike, etc in the Eastern part of the country to consult and treat local people far from civilisation.

In fact, I felt fulfilled being able to help these people who needed my services more, and would have died without it.

That was how I developed passion for going places ordinary doctors won’t dare go to.

However, how I located this people is actually a coincidence?

Why do I n ow, say that ‘I Was Dreaming About Pregnant Women Every Night, So…?

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After my service year, I came to Lagos, and was working with an hospital located in Ajegunle, I noticed that most of the pregnant women coming across water usually have one complication or the other.

Many used to lose their children immediately after birth while some die with the pregnancy. So I wanted to know more about pregnant women and see how I could be of help.

I gave my personal phone number to all my pregnant women and asked them to call me whenever they are having any issue whether during pregnancy, labour or after delivery.

I gave them a promise that I will come over myself with the hospital ambulance and pick them to the hospital. It helped quite a lot of them from the riverine communities like Snake Island, Sagbokogi, Ituagan, etc where different complications and loss of their lives and those of their children were rampant..

I found out there was no way I would reach there with my ambulance, I was told I had to cross water on a boat.

So one afternoon, after morning duty I set out to find out where these patients were coming from and I was surprised to find out that there was no way I could help with my ambulance. There were a good number of pregnant women and children but no standard hospital there to help at times of emergencies especially at night

At night, when most labour and other health emergencies happen, the boats hardly operate. But for the health centre serving them, I got there in the afternoon and discovered it was shut.  I was now left to wonder the fate of these vulnerable people when it comes to healthcare.

I thought of the fate of hundreds of thousands of innocent children and pregnant women living and working in these communities? I decided I had to do something, even though I just married and moved to Lagos.

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I could not remove the matter from my mind. I was dreaming about these married women and their plight every night.

Initially, I wanted to travel abroad, like most young doctors, make a lot of money and come back and establish a private hospital in Nigeria.

I immediately resigned, moved to Snake Island and started my first hospital in a three bedroom flat and to my utmost surprise, patients were coming, though we had no beds, wooden couches and other standard Laboratory. I and two other nurses started to save lives and were help a lot of people.

Dr Creek speaking

And they were coming with their friends and neighbors and the hospital became an immediate success.

After a month I got a visa to travel to the United Kingdom (UK) and I was confused. Do I leave the new hospital and travel to UK? What happens to these people? What happens to my new hospital? Who takes care of these people?

These and other questions were racing through my mind. I travelled to UK in May, 2010 and returned after two months because I knew only myself could help these riverine communities as nobody knew the seriousness of their plight not to talk of standard, health care.

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That was how relocated back to Nigeria and decided to help them. And since then I have been doing everything I deem appropriate to help save the lives of these less privileged, innocent children and pregnant women.

-To be concluded

Narration: Gbolahan Nureni Sodipo, popularly called Dr. Creek. As at the time of this interaction, he already had two private hospitals in the riverine areas of Lagos, with regular women trooping there for medicare.